


Dino Bites and Strawberry Milk

by HapaxLegomenon



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Food Service, Challenge: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2015, Fast Food, M/M, Tsukishima Kei Likes Dinosaurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 23:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7990285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapaxLegomenon/pseuds/HapaxLegomenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "Yamaguchi works graveyard shift at a 24/7 fast food joint; Tsukishima is the insomniac who comes in randomly at asshole o'clock and orders dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets from the kids menu."</p><p>Fill for SASO 2015 BR2</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dino Bites and Strawberry Milk

**Author's Note:**

> Re-posted entry written for the SASO 2015 Bonus Round 2 (AUs).

 

 

 

 

 

 

There aren’t many regulars when you work the graveyard shift, Yamaguchi has come to realize. There’s the midnight lunch set, the rush of other overnight workers who come in for a cheap burger and a huge coffee and stay for twenty or twenty-five minutes before hurrying back to whatever their own jobs are. Yamaguchi likes the midnight rush, because it’s generally the only time he gets customers who aren’t drunk and rowdy and sloppy and craving fast food in the middle of the night.

Yamaguchi likes the midnight lunch crew, but they’re not his favourite. Not by a long shot. That title goes to the grouchy insomniac who comes in a few nights a week to order off of the kid’s menu.

Today, apparently, is one of those nights, and Yamaguchi ignores Hinata’s teasing over the way his face lights up when the door’s bell tinkles and he spots the familiar blond hair and dark circles half-hidden behind square glasses.

“Hello!” he greets, arguably far too cheerful for 3:30am, and his regular offers his typical nod.

“One order of Dino Bites and a strawberry milk?” Yamaguchi asks out of courtesy, though he’s already punching the order in. His regular nods again, then hands Yamaguchi the correct amount of change -- pre-counted -- while smothering a yawn with the back of his other hand.

Yamaguchi’s sympathetic. He’s deduced after months of (borderline obsessive, okay, shut up Hinata) observation that this customer isn’t a night shift worker like the rest of them. Or a drunken student. So he’s probably supposed to be able to function like a normal person during daylight hours. Yamaguchi, though, is an absolute nightmare when he doesn’t get enough sleep, and so he wonders how this person manages to survive in civilized society. And what it is that keeps him up at strange hours.

Not that he minds.

“Why don’t you go sit down?” he suggests kindly. “I’ll bring your food out when it’s ready.”

Another nod and yawn.

A few minutes later, when his regular is half-dozing with his chin propped up in his hands, and Hinata has managed not to burn the second batch of Dinosaur-Shaped Chicken “Dino Bites” -- Big Flavour For Big Kids -- Yamaguchi happily brings out his tray and puts it down on the table with an overly-cheerful, “Here you go, Tsukki!”

His regular is instantly awake. “What did you just call me?”

Not for the first time, Yamaguchi curses the pale skin that makes him prone to both freckles and full-body flushes. At the moment, his problem lies more with the latter.

“U-um, well, there was that day last week when you didn’t have any cash so you had to use your credit card and I don’t know your name so I looked ‘cause I was curious, and I saw “Tsuki” but I forgot the rest so I’ve been kind of thinking of you as “Tsukki” for the last week, I’m sorry I’m so creepy!”

“Shut up,” Tsukki says abruptly, pushing at his glasses. Yamaguchi apologizes again, and then, because he can’t think of anything else to do, he slinks back behind the counter to sulk.

“That was embarrassing,” Hinata comments.

“Hnnng,” Yamaguchi says, banging his head against the drinks fridge. His forehead leaves a mark.

“I’m not cleaning that,” Hinata declares, but he pats Yamaguchi on the back sympathetically.

Tsukki finished his Dino Bites and milk and leaves without once looking back at Yamaguchi.

He doesn’t return the next night, or the one after. Yamaguchi laments his own idiocy, ranting for hours at an increasingly disinterested Hinata.

“He doesn’t usually come two days in a row,” Hinata reminds him for the sixteenth time, but Yamaguchi just groans.

(He does feel a bit bad about it, and “accidentally” ruins a milkshake so that Hinata can drink it. Hinata, for his part, seems very pleased by his not-quite-an-apology).

On the third night, Yamaguchi is despondently stacking paper cups when Hinata skids into the back room and hisses, “He’s here!”

“Who?”

“You know!” Hinata waves his arms unhelpfully. “Him! Your Tsukki or whatever!”

“Wh -- he’s not _mine_ ,” Yamaguchi blusters, but Hinata waves away his protests and shoves Yamaguchi towards the front of the store, where, sure enough, Tsukki is waiting with a vaguely disgruntled expression.

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” Yamaguchi says. “Uh, the usual?”

Tsukki nods, but he looks like he wants to say something, so Yamaguchi waits. But when the silence stretches long enough to be awkward, Yamaguchi just turns his back and starts cooking the nuggets. He can feel Tsukki watching him and wills himself not to turn Refill-With-Heinz-Only ketchup-red.

“When’s your break?” Tsukki asks suddenly.

“Oh! Um.”

“Now!” Hinata shouts, popping up from behind the fryer and making them both jump. “His break is now!” He practically pushes Yamaguchi from behind the counter, ripping off his hair net (and half of his hair, too, it feels like, _ouch_ ) and helpfully whisper-yelling that he’ll make Yamaguchi’s lunch sandwich for him and bring it out, not to worry, and he tacks an embarrassing wink onto the end of it.

“Um,” Yamaguchi says again, when they’re sitting awkwardly at Tsukki’s usual table.

“You’re cuter with your hair out of the net,” Tsukki comments, and Yamaguchi doesn’t really know how to respond to something like that except to throw him a smile and tug awkwardly on one lock. Did that really just happen?

“You could have just asked.”

“S-sorry?”

“If you wanted to know my name.” Tsukki bites the head off of a chicken triceratops with precision, and Yamaguchi watches him chew.

“Oh.” Yamaguchi feels incredibly eloquent. “So then… what is your name?”

He doesn’t expect the way Tsukki’s eyes flick uncomfortably to the side. “Tsukki’s fine,” he mutters, ears pink, and Yamaguchi can’t help it. He laughs.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

Yamaguchi jolts -- his name in Tsukki’s voice does very odd things to him, and he realizes, of course, that it’s not strange that Tsukki knows his name. He does wear a name tag, after all.

“Sorry, Tsukki.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Talk fandom to me on Twitter at [@paxlegomenon](https://twitter.com/paxlegomenon).


End file.
